subject: Turmeric Benefits In Hindu Custom [print this page] The use of turmeric (curcuma longa) on all auspicious occasions is considered to be highly essential by one and by Hindu customs. Much trade is carried on in dried turmeric root and hundreds of acres are under the cultivation of this root every year. In India, all married women and unmarried girls should use this everyday while bathing. Women going to bathe in rivers in villages in Southern India, take with them a bit of this root to creat a turmeric extract by forming a paste of yellow colour which is applied to their faces and legs previous to plunging in the water. Even if they bathe at home they make use of this turmeric benefits. Only widows, who are supposed to be dead to all joys of this world, do not make use of this.
In fact this article turmeric root is so common in all families that a proverb has become current that when a man becomes very poor people say that he is worth not even a manjal kombu (buy turmeric).
The reason for the importance attached to the use of this yellow root is not clear to many. Some say that an application of a paste of this over the skin removes hair and prevents growth of it. As men would not like their women to be with moustaches and overgrowth of hair on their faces, this paste came to be in use, is the reason given by some. But the real reason seems to be connected with certain beliefs in the denizens of the super-physical world, who are supposed to have connection with the formation and growth of this plant. In fact the Hindus believe that every form in this world, nay in the solar system itself, comes under one or other variety of devas or super physical beings. There are no turmeric side effects.
The yellow colour is said to have the power to influence the intellect, since the yellow devas whose essence is intelligence precipitated this colouring matter in this dense world to form the various yellow substances. Any attempt to be successful should be guided by intellect. Hence has risen the custom of implementing turmeric as the most handy yellow substance, not only to symbolise intellect, the guiding factor in the performance of the rituals, but also inducing the flow of the influence from the yellow devas of mental essence.
Indian men have not completely given up turmeric. As man and wife are considered to be one in the matter of performance of rituals, and as the wife uses the saffron, there is no necessity for man also to use it. But when he becomes a sanyasi (It is the order of life of the renouncer within Hindu schemes of asramas, or life stages) and renounces the world he uses the yellow robe to denote and symbolize intellect, and red robes, love for all created beings.
To conclude, the reason why Indian ladies make use of this yellow turmeric and not Indian men, lies in the fact that they represent power while men are simply the guiding agents of that power.
